"Believe it or not" stories

[Leon Marrick]

And the white worm mass got in the fatal blow

So my High-Elven mage is tush-toasting at 3100'. Level 49, stats maxed. I enter a large ordinary room with Fundin Bluecloak right in the middle, sleeping the sleep of the unjust. Four grids away, a White Worm Mass (WWM) is also sleeping. I'm a little nervous, because WWM's killed my last four wazillion characters, but I figure if I'm real careful, I might be able to take it down. After all, I have quadruple poison resist; cost me Free Action to get it, but a guy's gotta defend against the real threats.

I chant a few rituals contributed by that cool-cat Tenser, stand next to Fundin, and manastorm the WWM. It gets a really unlucky resistance roll, and bits the dust. Whew.

Now for the easy part. I bring down Aglarang on top of Fundin's head. He hits back for diddy/squat, and I earnestly continue the discussion of his evil ways. He doesn't like the terms of the debate I'm holding, so he summons a few smooth-talking friends. Two greater titans, a great wyrm of law, a balrog, two Nazguls with full escort, and a white worm mass. But I'm good to go. I'm at +9 speed, I have all the resists, I'm protected with GOI, and-most importantly-the WWM is two grids away. So I keep working over Fundin.

Then the off-screen shrieker mushroom patch makes like a fire alarm and the warranty on my GOI expires. The rest ain't pretty. First I get slowed, then I get whaled on some, then I get whaled on some more, and before I know it, I'm down to 0 HPs. As I scream in disbelief, the white worm mass takes its second turn. Tombstone.

Damn, those little injits move fast when they wanna.